rwmaron Posted February 18, 2022 Report Share Posted February 18, 2022 How do the northern Minnesota carvers dress for these conditions you ask? Our softbooter friend Mike and bigwavedave: At least the sun was shining! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted February 19, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2022 Saturday Took yesterday off to give my knees a rest. I rode too long on that concrete groom Thursday (4½ hrs). Plus we had a bit of a blizzard yesterday. Only a few inches of actual snowfall, but 40+ kt gusts were causing whiteout conditions. This morning was sunny and cold, -2°F. Snow was a bit softer and very nice for carving! Race courses on Gandy & BlueRuin and a XC race at the bottom of 4pipe. Summit chair was running, so lift lines weren't bad. We got a good 1½ hrs in before the slopes got too busy with holiday weekend crowds. Word is, one of the groomers is down. Ken & Jane were there. SC track on Gandy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted February 21, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2022 President's day blizzard A perfect storm takes perfect aim at Duluth! NE winds gusting 30kts off the lake are supercharging the storm with lake effect snow. Woke up to 4" new snow and near whiteout conditions. Forecast is for 12-18" through tomorrow. Got to the top of the hill ½ hr early and made 2 runs with the baby swallowtail before the 1st chair. Conditions were frozen groom from yesterday interspersed with 6-9" deep windrows of powder across the hill. The wind was coming up the hill. The most consistent powder was found on narrower runs and near the trees at the edge of trails. Rode for 2½ hrs. Despite the new snow, it wasn't near as crowded as yesterday, which I heard was crazy busy. Should be fantastic tomorrow! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted February 21, 2022 Report Share Posted February 21, 2022 (edited) 10 minutes ago, bigwavedave said: made 2 runs with the baby swallowtail before the 1st chair. Well... How did it perform? I'm taking a break at the car, it's 64f with a 13 knot southerly breeze. The Midwest is too large to be considered one thing! Edited February 21, 2022 by lonbordin I dunt spel sew gud Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted February 21, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2022 4 minutes ago, lonbordin said: Well... How did it perform? Loving Mark's PC carvers. They handle a wide variety of conditions. I think the swallowtail helps smooth out the chop. Since it carves so well, I was able to carve from the frozen groom into 6-9" of powder without a thought. It's a magic little board. Everyone seemed to be struggling and complaining about the conditions today. They think I'm weird cause I was having a blast. If you hit the road right now, you could be here by 1st chair tomorrow! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted February 21, 2022 Report Share Posted February 21, 2022 (edited) And leave shangri-la?! Edited February 21, 2022 by lonbordin It's @Lurch's fault if I take more pictures. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lurch Posted February 21, 2022 Report Share Posted February 21, 2022 (edited) 20 minutes ago, lonbordin said: And leave shangri-la?! @lonbordin you sure that poor Donek did not just cry 'Enough already' and leap off the roof of your car to end its pain? Edited February 21, 2022 by Lurch Snowboard, not earth mover 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted February 21, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2022 3:15 And the express chair shut down due to wind. When I left at noon, the wind was flipping the seats up on the trip back down. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted February 22, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 22, 2022 twos-day Well, we got a lot of snow (18") and it's still coming down. Wind is lighter today. Couldn't get my car out, so walked up to the hill. Express lift not running, but was told the Summit lift is going. Walk up to the Summit lift, not running, so over to Gandy, which is going. I'm already tired before making my first turns! I don't think they groomed overnight as there is still exposed crusty groom between 1-2 ft deep windrows, especially near the top of the hill. More consistent snow lower on the hill. SkyHooker was good. I got lucky and caught the 1st chair on the Summit lift when it opened and made 1st tracks down ScissorBill, and 2nd and 3rd. Took a while for people to catch on. It started getting busy, school must be out. Made my last run down 4pipe through 12-18" of untracked. Rode for 2 hours. (in honor of 2's day) Saw someone riding a Prior Powstick with softboots. The only other split tail on the hill. 1:15 pm, just checked the webcam and the express chair is now running. Some 1st day groom tomorrow? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. T Posted February 23, 2022 Report Share Posted February 23, 2022 That was me on the Prior, Dave! Thanks again! Had a great day until I discovered that my phone escaped a pocket and is now somewhere in the pow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted February 23, 2022 Report Share Posted February 23, 2022 i might be doing a day trip to spirit this friday (2/25). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted February 23, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2022 6 hours ago, Mr. T said: That was me on the Prior, Dave! Thanks again! Of course it was! I suspected as much. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted February 23, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2022 Wed Wow! Best day ever? Super soft groom, especially 4pipe, but everything was surfy, powder-groomed-carvy goodness, no crowds and sunny. 3 plows broken down or stuck at home in the marina, so I had to snowshoe out to where the 3rd plow got stuck and then walk up to the bottom of the hill....and wouldn't you know it, there's @rwmaron already making the 1st tracks... A little later we had 3 carvers trenching the heck out of the hill. Me and @khoward... Rode till 2:00 with a lunch break to warm up. Oh yeah, started out 5 below and up to 10 above. Wasn't bad with sun and no wind. Should be good tomorrow. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwmaron Posted February 23, 2022 Report Share Posted February 23, 2022 I’d like to think that I’ve ‘upped the game’ as for the gear in the Patrol equipment rack here at Spirit, thanks to Mark Miller ( @BLOODTYPEZX10R) 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted February 24, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2022 Finally got dug out so I could drive to the top of the hill with all my boards and then ride one board, the 8rw, all day. Another fabulous day, sun, soft groom, no crowds and 10°F below. Ken & Jane were there, so was our boarder patrollaire extraordinaire. Started on the express side and then over to the Gandy side. Trenched up everything pretty good. It was all good. isn't there a song, the 1st tracks are the deepest?.... @bobbleIt's the best conditions so far this season. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted February 25, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2022 Fri What a day! The groom is gradually getting firmer each day. Still finding the softest snow on 4Pipe and it is perfect carving snow everywhere. I made 1st tracks early and got a nice cord-porn shot... @bobble arrived at the bottom just as the chairs started loading. After a second run on the express side we headed over to Gandy and tore it up. Gandy was a gas and we rode it till our own trenches made us want to move on. We put on a pretty good show under the chair and left some nice tracks. Everything was good! We rode til 2:30. It was 5° below at the start with a sky blue sky all day. The cold may have kept the crowds down, because it was easy to get clear runs. Most of the time we were the only 2 coming down a run. Thanks for coming up to play Bob! That was a fun day! P.S. Met another hardbooter riding a SG 163 FRT, an alpine coach for the G-team. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted February 26, 2022 Report Share Posted February 26, 2022 thanks to @rwmaron for getting me a discounted ticket. I feel very fortunate that spirit was not crowded. I told ms bobble that I'd be done at 12 when lift lines are long. That didn't happen stayed past 2:15pm. About that time it was getting crowded and kids bombing the run. I had fun. Great to get away from work. Thanks@bigwavedave for everything. Gandy was nice. I think the highlight was after the break we returned to the scene of the crime and seeing the trenchies still there. On a scale of 1 to 10 Ruthies (where 10 is the run is rutted to oblivion, if you went to SES then you know what I mean) we probably were close to 4 or 5. Only run I didn't like was the park. All the rails and jumps made me nervous. on Blue Ruin, took me a run to figure out how to enter from chair. Looked intimidating being so narrow. Loved the rolls on the run. On one of them I slightly went airborne on toe side carve. I didn't time it right. At apex my legs extended out into the air. I yelped "shit". Landed on my stomach, slid, and carved back away. New cool trick. I wanted to to a repeat. cant remember names but all the wide blue runs were fun. Four Pipe was a bit too slow. I think I only rode it 3 times. The express lift was windy and cold. I discovered later that my pit zips were open. At the end my front thigh was tired. I had nothing left. Ms bobble picked me up from bottom chalet. I hobbled to the car. We stayed at the Inn at Canal Park. I took a long nap. Later walked to Vikry so ms bobble could get "supplies". The Inn has an outdoor heated pool. Surprisingly no one used it but us. Maybe because there were no towels. Heading back home this morning. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted February 26, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2022 Sat Barely made it 1½ hrs, not counting 1st tracks at 9:30. Ken was there. After one run we headed over to Gandy chair–you could just feel it was gonna get crowded quick. Gandy, BlueRuin, SkyHooker all great with plush, carvalishious corduroy. A race course on the left side of Gandy made the top section a bit narrow. We had several fun runs, but it didn't take long for carvus-interuptus issues to pop up on every other run. Lots of beginners venturing out on runs beyond their ability , and with temps climbing into the 20's, we had all the hallmarks of it becoming a zoo today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corey Posted February 26, 2022 Report Share Posted February 26, 2022 3 hours ago, bigwavedave said: carvus-interuptus issues OMG, that's perfect! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted February 27, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2022 Sun It got well above freezing yesterday afternoon and it was overcast this morning, so I had low expectations. Almost didn't go (who am I kidding?). Made 1st tracks early and found the groom to be fantastic, 2-4 inch deep trenches. Ken was on it. Same drill as the past couple of days–moved over to the Gandy chair after the first few runs to avoid building crowds. The sun came out and I managed to ride for 2 hrs until it got hard to get a clear run. Ice-chunky snow from yesterday's thaw & freeze cycle exposed itself once the surface groom got carved and tracked up. Another grooming cycle should fix that, plus we've got a bit of snow in the forecast. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khoward Posted February 27, 2022 Report Share Posted February 27, 2022 This week's had the best groom of the past several years. Gave up after about an hour with heavy traffic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 1, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2022 Tuesday Another day with plush groom! It's warm with temps in the 20's and pushing up to the freezing mark. Russ was there getting to know his new Thirst FX. About 3 hrs today. Some school groups, so a little busy over on the express side. Gandy was quite nice again today...and the 8rw was diggin' it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 2, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2022 We had above freezing temps yesterday afternoon. Gandy was a bit firm today with an uneven "surface" groom. Bounced me around a bit. Took a couple of runs through the park and found lots of room to carve around the features. Everywhere else still had great plush groom, especially 4Pipe and ScissorBill, SkyHooker was fun, but getting firmer. There were not many people on the hill making it a great day for unfettered carving. Even though there were school groups and it was the first of 3 days of monoski-ism (not the monodude kind), it never got busy on the hill. In fact, everyone disappeared around noon, right after the sun came out, so I kept going for another hour til they reappeared. Groomers were back working on that boarder X course. I can't see how it's worth all the time and effort. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 3, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2022 Thursday Back to subzero temps this morning, but quickly warming into the 20's. It must have gotten above freezing yesterday as we are back to our typical Minnesota-firm today. Trenches are ½" deep or less. Snow is hard, made me switch from the Super to the F-plated Rev after the first hour to smooth out the uneven surface groom and my own ruts (or @rwmaron's or @khoward's). Grooming was better over on Gandy and SkyHooker and nobody over there. Despite the monoski and school groups, it was not hard to get a clear run, and like yesterday, everyone vanished at noon. I stayed til 1pm when my legs starting getting tired and the crowds were coming back out. Boarder X course is finished. Jane was over there. The comp is this weekend. Might be interesting with the storm headed our way. Russ on his new ride... Huge scr on that thing! day 69 and I tweaked my back. I think it was a latent effect from all the shoveling and snowshoeing/hiking up to the hill after the blizzard. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwmaron Posted March 8, 2022 Report Share Posted March 8, 2022 Tuesday, March 8 Flat light and icy groom at the 10am open were far from ideal. Gradually brightened and softened over the next hour, though traffic was a bit heavier than usual for a Tuesday morning - I sense that folks are feeling to get out before the season winds down in a few weeks. Fellow patroller@D Dett joined me for the last hour. Russ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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